Whether Rain, Snow, or Shine, we are planning to come to the Marque Farmer’s Market Location in Gainesville for a Special Sale on Monday between: 4:00pm to 5:30pm with our own homemade Hot Cocoa and Loose leaf teas (stop by for samples), Farm fresh non-GMO eggs, Raw Honey, Granola, & Baked Goods (incl. Cornbread & Scones). Pre-order to ensure availability.

Note that we will also be in Springfield Tuesday morning. Let us know if you or anyone else are interested in ordering for a Springfield (near the mall) pickup.

What a week! So good to see all who made it out last Monday. Though a bit drizzly and cold, the tasty hot cocoa and tea samples along with great fellowship made for a memorable afternoon. Thanks for stopping by! We will have more of our homemade Hot Cocoa mix available. The fresh taste of Honey Brook Hot Cocoa made with a pinch of cayenne pepper nicely accentuates the rich cocoa flavor making for an extra special drink on any cold day. Make sure you ask for a sample of the Hot Cocoa & one of the loose leaf teas when you come by. Along with a bounty of our regular baked goods, we will also have freshly made Cranberry Scones & Cornbread – perfect additions to a hot drink on a cold, snowy night while being wrapped up in a warm blanket with your favorite book.

Bad weather doesn’t stop work from continuing on here at the farm. New garden beds are being tilled and then covered with hay until planting time. Trees keep coming in the mail – several hazelnuts will be going in the ground Saturday along with a few specialty berry plants. Mom finished cutting up most of the seed potatoes which have been curing and are now ready for planting. Daniel is hard at work with planting seeds for tomatoes, peppers, herbs, leeks, lettuce greens, and much, much more. We’re looking forward to several new varieties of vegetables this year including some beautiful heirloom tomatoes – a special surprise for you all later this season. Kenan has been working faithfully with the new chicks which are growing quickly. And our new farm dog, Dakota, is learning obedience very well and will soon be a welcomed companion in the farmyard especially around the orchard and berry patches.

The peach and almond trees are just starting to break bud – a truly miraculous moment as the delicate pink petals emerge from dormancy into radiant blossom just in time for the overwintering honey bees to pollinate. With this pollen, the bees are able to raise brood for a new generation of honey bees and with the nectar they will make another tasty crop of honey. The peach flowers will finish blooming, the petals will fall, and out will come a tender little peach which in a few months will become a luscious fruit that we all love and enjoy. Processes like these which we encounter on the farm are a truly remarkable phenomena. Creation truly works together so beautifully.

Thank you also to all who have been dropping off empty egg cartons. We are able to re-use them. Please feel free to stop by and drop them off so our egg production team can re-fill with more fresh, non-GMO eggs.

If you would like to pre-order, we encourage you to do so to ensure availability. Phone: 540-825-8375 or Email: honeybrookva@gmail.com. This week’s products will include fresh, non-GMO chicken eggs, our own nutrient rich Raw Honey (unheated, untreated, chemical free), a variety of loose leaf teas, Honey Brook Hot Cocoa Mix, and baked goods.

Be sure to ask about how you can reserve fresh chicken. Starting in May, in addition to frozen whole chickens, we will be offering the opportunity to purchase fresh whole chicken and chicken parts. Feel free to email or stop by the market to inquire about reserving early.

We will be at the Marque Farmer’s Market Location for a Special Sale on Monday between: 4:00pm to 5:30pm with Farm fresh non-GMO eggs, Raw Honey, Loose Leaf Tea, Granola, & Baked Goods. Pre-order to ensure availability.

Time permitting, we also bring along a few of our heirloom apple trees. Feel free to stop by and check them out.

There is such a thrill to see new life beginning around this time of year. Just yesterday, I walked through the plant production center where we mix potting soil and start our little plants and trees. There I saw several of our grafted apple trees bursting out with little leaves. This time next year we will be planting many of these in the orchard. We also have cute little cranberry, gooseberry, and currant plants emerging with new life. And then walk out to the little chicken shed where there have been a few hundred little chicks running here, running there, eating, drinking, huddling together for warmth while peeping away – so precious.

Sixteen more apple trees found there way into the orchard earlier this week along with a couple hundred timber pines in the lower field this week. The ground is very moist which is great for the new plants and trees. The hoop houses are abounding with little green plants – oh the glories of spring! On Wednesday, we finished pruning the fruit trees. Looking at all the fruit buds, our young trees should bring a good crop of fruit later this year. There is something special about climbing up in a peach tree to prune. The little pink buds are almost ready to burst out into radiant bloom.

The chickens will be moving out to the orchard here soon to spend sometime eating bugs that may have wintered in the orchard. We’re very grateful for their pest management! Our heritage breed of hogs – Gloucestershire Old Spot Hogs are doing a fantastic job rototilling for us. They have already prepared two very large garden beds and are busily at work on the third. We enjoy working with our animals – they help us out as we help care for them. Unlike conventional farms which are all about mass production of animals for meat, eggs, and milk with little to no concern for the environment, the health of the animals, or the quality of the produce, we enjoy allowing the animals do what they were created to do while enjoying the sunshine & fresh air, chemical free pasture, & non-GMO grain. Chickens like to scratch the ground for bugs, pigs like to rototill, goats like to eat weeds. Consequently, we have very happy, healthy animals that will produce quality, nutritious, & simply delicious meat, eggs, & milk!

Thank you also to all who have been dropping off empty egg cartons. We are able to re-use them. Please feel free to stop by and drop them off so our egg production team can re-fill with more fresh, non-GMO eggs.

We will have more Honey Brook Granola – Crunchy, Nutritious, & Naturally Delicious. Pre-order to ensure availability. Our granola is made with whole grains, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and no added refined sugar. Treat yourself to a tasty and very healthy breakfast or sprinkle on your favorite yogurt or ice cream.

This week’s varieties:

– Maple Walnut

– Cranberry Almond

– Simply Blueberry

We will see you Monday between 4pm & 5:30pm.

If you would like to pre-order, we encourage you to do so to ensure availability. Phone: 540-825-8375 or Email: honeybrookva@gmail.com. This week’s products will include fresh, non-GMO chicken eggs, our own nutrient rich Raw Honey (unheated, untreated, chemical free), a variety of loose leaf teas (five tasty varieties this week), and baked goods.

Be sure to ask about how you can reserve fresh chicken. Starting in May, in addition to frozen whole chickens, we will be offering the opportunity to purchase fresh whole chicken and chicken parts. Feel free to email or stop by the market to inquire about reserving early.

Things are getting busy. This time of year is always great for pulling us out of any winter doldrums and getting us excited about the new life that spring brings.

This week saw the arrival of our first batch of chicks, the planting of our first crops in our new high tunnel green house, more grafting and pruning of fruit trees and the planting of nut trees. Even though these new trees will not produce a harvestable crop for many years the thrill of preparing for the future by faith is always invigorating.

Farming really drives the point home of how dependent we are. If the rain did not fall, the wind blow, the bees fly or the sun shine when they are supposed to our efforts would fail and we would starve. Yet every year the seasons show up on time, the sun heats up the earth, the rain falls, the plants sprout, the bees pollinate, the farmers daily pull weeds and squish bad bugs with the result of a harvest of healthy and nourishing food. It is a sort of miracle that this continues year after year. It is so consistent in fact that if we are not careful we can start to take it for granted.

Thank you again for your support! We consider it a privilege to be involved in this grand profession of supplying quality food. It is a responsibility that we take seriously. Let us know how we can serve you better.

We will be at the Marque Farmer’s Market Location for a Special Sale on Monday between: 4:00pm to 5:30pm with Farm fresh non-GMO eggs, Raw Honey, Frozen Whole Chicken, Loose Leaf Tea, Granola, & Baked Goods. Pre-order to ensure availability. It was a great market last week. Several other vendors were present making for a great diversity of products.

Shipments of several hundred new little chicks will be on the way to Honey Brook Farms this coming week so we will have a wonderfully busy farm yard – White Cornish-Cross Meat Birds and then a wonderful mixture of laying hens: Golden Buff, Barred Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, Black Asutralorp, White Rock and Cuckoo Marans.

We still have a supply of RAW honey – never treated, never heated and whole chickens raised on chemical free fields, supplemented with a non-GMO grain.

Thank you to all who have been dropping off empty egg cartons. We are able to re-use them. Please feel free to stop by and drop them off so our egg production team can re-fill with more fresh, non-GMO eggs.

We will have more Honey Brook Granola – Crunchy, Nutritious, & Naturally Delicious. We ended up selling out of a couple varieties but supplies will be replenished this week. Our granola is made with wholegrains, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and no refined sugar. Treat yourself to a tasty and very healthy breakfast or sprinkle on your favorite yogurt or ice cream.

Thank you to all who made it out yesterday to the Marque Farmer’s Market location in Haymarket. As you probably noticed, there were several other vendors present as well making for a great winter market all around. Yesterday, a couple of you were interested in the recipe for making a tasty meal with one of our frozen whole chickens. Please see below for recipe. Let us know if you have any questions on the preparing of it or any feedback/suggestions after trying it yourself. We’re always eager to learn.

And a note on the whole chickens, we are nearing the last of our frozen chicken until the season officially begins in May. We may have a supply for a couple more weeks, just not sure. So if you have enjoyed the tasty chicken meat and would like another one or two before May, let us know (current sizes range from 2.5-4lbs). Come May, we are looking forward to offering fresh whole chicken and chicken parts (chicken breasts, wings, etc) raised according to the Honey Brook Farms standard – pasture raised on chemical free fields, supplemented with non-GMO grain.

Also, did you know that chicken is a good source of protein and other nutrients. White chicken parts such as the wings and breast, have the most proteint. One 3 oz. serving of chicken contains 21 g of protein. Chicken also contains B-complex vitamins: B-3 (helps produce energy & keeps the skin, digestion, & nervous system functioning properly), B-6 (helps break down protein and boosts red blood cell health) and B-12 (helps metabolize folic acid and carbohydrates in the body). Furthermore, chicken meat contains zinc which helps form protein, enzymes, and new cells and iron (1mg in 3oz of meat) which helps the hemoglobin and myoglobin carry oxygen throughout the body.

The chicken is an amazing creation that has a lot of nutrition to offer both through the eggs and meat. Caring for the birds by creating a quality environment with fresh, chemical free pasture and wholesome food, results in nutritous and tasty meals that we all can eat in confidence.

Let us know if you have any questions about our chickens. Have a great week and we will be in touch about next week’s Special Sale at the Marque in just a few days.